Research project To become or not to become a leader

How leaders are selected and later develop are fundamental for understanding human organization. Within worklife and organizations, access to managers and leaders is an ongoing challenge. At the same time, leadership and labor market research has shown a great interest in individual, structural, and contextual factors that influence the attainment of formal leadership positions. For example, the concept "glass ceiling”, referring to obstacles women often face in reaching higher management positions, has become part of our everyday vocabulary.

Research on leadership in worklife does, however, suffer from selection bias. It usually departs from those who already are managers and retrospectively studies significant factors behind the attainment of this position. Hence, we know little about those who wanted to or could have become leaders but who did not attain such roles. Moreover, research on informal leadership, leadership during childhood, and adolescence as well as exits from leadership positions has largely been oblivious.

This project aims at filling some of these gaps by prospectively studying both those who do and do not become leaders and movements into and out of management positions. Also, the aim is to study informal and formal leadership from a life-course and gender perspective.

The project is based on a comprehensive data set on a cohort of 15,000 individuals who were followed from their birth in 1953 to the present. It consists of survey and register data about the cohort members, their parents, siblings, partners, and children. As children, the cohort members were asked about e.g. future occupational aspirations and informal leadership in the class. By studying a large group from childhood through adolescence and adult life we will contribute to a better understanding of which circumstances at different points in life influence who becomes or doesn’t become a leader, who leaves a managerial position – and how this varies between women and men.